Promoted Summit Puts Medication Management Under Microscope

Pharmaceutical design specialist Protomed has brought together key figures from the pharma, healthcare and pharmacy arenas to debate the future of medication management (22 October). Following recent news that seven out of ten care home residents have suffered medication errors , experts in medical technology and patient welfare underlined the need to accelerate innovation for more sustainable and successful drug administration.

Hosted at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in London, the event attracted a series of high-profile speakers including Baroness Greengross OBE, Chris Britten of Deloitte and the Royal Pharmaceutical Societys David Pruce.

A key focus was how to adapt to increasingly stringent medication directives affecting the primary care sector. Also on the agenda was the role of local pharmacies and pharma manufacturers in making drug administration more trackable. Technology was central to the debate, as industry leaders in controlled dosage and drug monitoring systems revealed the latest safeguards to minimise error and increase patient wellbeing.

Care homes have come under close scrutiny recently and been shown wanting, commented Protomed chairman and host of the seminar, Tony Heywood. But we have a shared responsibility to learn from this and raise the standards of drug administration in the UK. The scale of demand for primary care has increased dramatically in the past two decades, but medical solutions have been slower to develop. Were now in a position, where technology leaves us little excuse for error. Its time for change, and pharmacies are well placed to revolutionise the way we manage medication, as they did back in the nineties.